MVP discussion

Minimum Viable Product: A great concept. Develop just enough of a feature that can be used by clients and provide value while the teams add more functionality incrementally. It makes sense.

Unfortunately, some people see MVP as a big shiny box with a ribbon on it and not smaller boxes over a more extended period. I feel it has roots from old Waterfall thinking. 

“Let’s go on a big bang.”

“I want everything to work as I wanted.”

I would be great to get everything all at once in the time that it is requested. Unfortunately, it never really worked out all that well when Waterfall was king. There is plenty of documentation out there that shows that a lot of requirements tend to go unused when deployed in a big bang fashion.

I won’t get into all the delays and painful meetings over change requests. I am twitching now, just the thought of all I went through early in my career.

I am not sure why people want to have a big shiny box when there is more value in small ones. We know what our customers want now, and unfortunately, minds change over time, especially if they have to wait a while for a product. 

Think of it this way. As a former personal trainer, one of the things I told clients was to eat more small meals throughout the day and not three big meals. The body functions better when there is a constant flow of calories than a significant influx. 

Clients are the same way. Give them small amounts of value and gather feedback to improve. That way, there they get something they want faster and will continue to use it down the road.